I'd like people to listen to our soldiers. They were there. They heard the alarms go off. They tasted the substance in the air. They spit up blood. They had rashes on their bodies. They got sick.
— Christopher Shays
The bottom line to this is, there are few doctors who have any expertise in chemical exposure.
What we know from World War I is that some of our troops had acute symptoms of exposure to chemicals, had bad health and died because of chemical exposure in World War I.
First off, we've had sworn testimony from soldiers and testimony before our staff that wasn't sworn, that said these alarms rarely went off, that they went off after the war in most cases and went off a lot.
It's hard for me to imagine that some people in the CIA who had firsthand knowledge would be unable to recognize that this would be helpful information for a soldier's death.
Oh it's clearly a cover up. I mean, I have no reluctance in saying that.
Yes, there is a story about Agent Orange, and we knew that it harmed our troops and we knew how long it was to get the medical community to accept that, the military to accept it, the VA to accept it.
I believe that stress is a factor in any bad health.
There's another issue here - and I have some limits as to what I can say - but there's some real question as to the viability of the chemical masks, the protective gear used by our soldiers.
But Gulf War Syndrome is not one cause, not one illness. It is many causes, many illnesses.
We knew shortly after the war that our troops were becoming ill.
First off, I'm not a scientist, and I make no apology for that.
I think that some of our soldiers die in the battlefield and some come home to bad health and die prematurely, just by the nature of the kind of business they're in.
But I would argue that a longer war it's more difficult to keep records than a shorter war.
I don't think there is one cause of Gulf War illness.
The bottom line is that the CIA knew before the war, during and war, and after the war where most of these chemicals were and most of these biological agents.
